It's been almost a year and a half since Brad Gilbert coached full time, but he has his hands full with the explosive talent of Andy Roddick.

One minute Gilbert's at home in California, chatting on TV and sharing his French Open picks on ESPN.com. The next, he's on a plane to London a day after Roddick gave him a call.

"I'm looking forward to it," Gilbert said Wednesday from London. "We're just starting out. First couple of days, things are going well. I'm excited about the opportunity."

The opportunity came four days after Roddick lost in the first round of the French Open for the second consecutive year. Roddick, ranked No. 6, has yet to make a breakthrough in a major tournament.

But if you're expecting to see major changes in Roddick's game at Wimbledon just because he's listening to the man who helped revive Andre Agassi's career, you're going to be disappointed.

"We're just practicing hard right now," Gilbert said. "We're not really making any changes. We've got Queen's coming up next week and Wimbledon after that. We're just kind of feeling each other out.

"We're not making any technical changes yet. It's too soon and to do that you also need some time off."

And though Gilbert confesses to already missing his wife, Kim, and their children, he's hoping to make this temporary partnership something that can last.

"We're just kind of taking it day by day. Hopefully we'll be talking soon about how things went eight years later."